Tuesday, July 10, 2012
The Ron Paul War Over Nebraska Delegates: Paul’s Last Stand with the GOP?
While the rest of the world treats the GOP presidential race as completely over, the final selection of delegates in the state of Nebraska is still ahead on July 14, and Ron Paul is still fighting for them. A win, if he can pull it off, will be of greater importance than it might seem for a candidate who has already admitted his opponent Mitt Romney is sure to win the nomination. Nebraska, if he nabs it, will be the fifth state whose delegation Paul controls, which according to Republican National Committee rules gives him the ability to be formally nominated for president from the floor, guaranteeing him 15 minutes of floor speaking time before the first ballot.
ust as past conventions in Oklahoma, Arizona, and Louisiana have been chaotic because of conflicts between Paul forces and the GOP establishment, the Republican Party of Nebraska is getting mighty defensive ahead of time, as NBC’s Anthony Terell reports:
Nebraska is the last state to hold a convention and its 32 delegates are not required to match the May 15 “beauty contest” primary, where presumptive nominee Mitt Romney won 70 percent of the vote. However, prospective delegates must indicate their presidential preference and are bound to vote for that candidate for the first two ballots at the August Republican National Convention….
Local reports say both Romney and Paul supporters have been “burning up the phone lines” making calls to delegates to assess who they’re voting for before the state convention in Grand Island.
Support for Paul could embarrass Governor Dave Heineman, who was the first Republican governor to endorse Romney.
“I welcome the Tea Party and Ron Paul supporters,” Heineman said. “That’s great for our party. But it’s time to be good sports and get behind Governor Romney.”
When Republicans arrive at the Riverside Golf Club for the convention they will be met with additional security, hired by the state party in anticipation of a Paul insurgency.
“It’s been communicated to us from other RNC members from around the country to watch for specific things,” Jordan McGrain, executive director of the state Republican Party, told NBC News.
“Their experience has been instructive to us. We’ve received correspondence from those who attended the Nevada and Louisiana state conventions where they had significant disturbances and problems. It arose from not everyone being on the same page and we have the benefit of that hindsight.”
Full article: http://reason.com/blog/2012/07/09/the-ron-paul-war-over-nebraska-delegates
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